Abstract
Purpose. It was the purpose of this study to identify and describe the degree to which superintendents and chief instructional leaders perceive that Action Learning is important to organizational change and improvement and to identify and describe strategies that superintendents and chief instructional leaders perceive to be the most important to Action Learning. Additionally it was the purpose of this study to identify and describe superintendent and chief instructional leader perceptions regarding barriers to utilization of Action Learning. Methodology. The subjects in the study were 33 superintendents and chief instructional leaders drawn from 25 school districts in three Northern California counties. Subjects responded to a 50-item survey assessing their perceptions of the usage and importance of Action Learning elements and strategies. Six of the subjects were subsequently selected for a 20-minute telephone interview. Findings. Survey participants demonstrated a bias for action. Strategies related to action, were rated as highly important to organizational improvement. Strategies related to team development were not rated highly. Two-thirds of the survey participants rated time and distracting/daily issues as the key barriers to staying focused upon the deeper work. Conclusions. The study data support the conclusion that school district leaders are biased toward action. School district leaders in this research study were inclined to participate and encourage surface level reflection, incremental refinements of the status quo and single-loop learning. The study supports the conclusion that school district leaders need to create organizational cultures with formal designed structures and informal emergence structures through an expanded use of social networks. Action Learning is well suited to assist school districts to better prepare students for the 21st century. Recommendations. Further research is advised including: replicate the study by expanding the population and sample size, replicate the study by expanding the population and sample size to include other public education groups, conduct research to investigate strategies that create the environment for Action Learning in school districts, conduct research to investigate the relationship between Action Learning and the development of 21st century innovative teaching practices, conduct research to explore how leadership development programs can be redesigned to include working with designed and emergent systems.